Two soldiers were injured after encountering a bear last week during a training event in Alaska, state wildlife officials said.
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game in a statement said it is investigating what appeared to be “a defense attack by a bear recently emerged from a den,” that occurred in a remote area of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson during a land navigation exercise. The area has since been closed to recreational activity until the inquiry is complete.
The soldiers sustained injuries but lived, the agency reported, attributing their survival to bear spray.
The agency “will continue investigating the circumstances that led to the attack and try to learn everything we can about what happened to increase public safety around wildlife in Alaska” the department’s regional supervisor, Cyndi Wardlow, said in the statement, adding, “in this case, having bear spray with them in the field may have saved their lives.”
Though initial reports suggested that the animal was a brown bear, the department is collecting and analyzing samples collected at the scene to determine the species and gender of the animal and see if it matches other samples on file. First responders did not see any bears when they arrived on scene.
A soldier in 2022 died from wounds sustained in a bear attack near the same base.
When the statement was published on April 17 — the day after the encounter — the bear had not been located. The department said due to the rural location, the bear was unlikely to be a high risk to the public.
Bear encounters and attacks increase as the temperature warms in Alaska, and the agency encouraged carrying deterrents like bear spray.
Eve Sampson is a reporter and former Army officer. She has covered conflict across the world, writing for The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Associated Press.